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Astrophotography

China Launches Lunar Mission

Chang'e 3 is en route to the Moon and should deliver a lander and rover to the Moon's Sinis Iridum region on December 14th.

The Moon is about to receive its first landing visitor of the 21st century. China's Chang'e 3 spacecraft, launched December 1st at 17:30 Universal Time (1:30 a.m. December 2nd in Beijing), should drop onto the lunar surface on December 14th. Some reports suggest the landing site will be in Sinus Iridum, on the northern margin of Mare Imbrium (upper-left part of the Moon as viewed from Earth).

Chang'e 3 consists of a service module and a landing vehicle. The 1,200-kg (2,600-pound) lander is equipped with an imaging spectrometer, a panoramic camera, and a ground-penetrating radar. It also carries a telescope to observe Earth's plasmasphere (geocorona).

Once safely on the lunar surface, the Chang'e-3's lander will deploy a solar-powered, six-wheeled rover to explore the terrain around the landing site. The rover called Yutu, named for the pet rabbit of Chang'e, a mythological Chinese woman who takes magic pills that allow her (and the rabbit) to fly to the Moon.

While expected to yield new insights into lunar science, Chinese officials emphasize that the Chang'e 3 mission is only a precursor to human exploration of the Moon — around it and on it — in the future.

Chang'e 3 is the third spacecraft of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP). Chang'e 1 and 2 launched in 2007 and 2010, respectively. (Chang'e 2 is currently traveling through deep space after a close encounter with asteroid 4179 Toutatis this time last year).

A Long March-3B rocket lofts China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe from a launch pad at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province shortly after midnight on December 2, 2013.

Xinhua/Li Gang

This spacecraft is the first China will attempt to land on an extraterrestrial body. If everything goes smoothly, this nation will join the exclusive ranks of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union as the only countries to land something on lunar soil.

Chang'e 3 and Yutu are not the only spacecraft now investigating the Moon. NASA launched its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) in September 2013. LADEE is an orbiter with a projected mission of 160 days. While China and the U.S. are not collaborating on their respective lunar missions, they will not hinder each other. In fact, the Yutu rover may enhance LADEE's studies and data collection.

Specifically, rocket exhaust released by the lander could provide a unique opportunity for scientific experimentation. Given that scientists know how, where, and when Chang'e 3 will arrive and land, LADEE may be able to see how the composition and amount of exhaust introduced into the lunar atmosphere migrates around the Moon. One component of the lander's exhaust is water. Observation of its migration could illuminate how water could be trapped at the lunar poles, which NASA Program Scientist Sarah Noble says is "a topic of considerable interest to the planetary community."

Historical note: Although several spacecraft have impacted the Moon in recent years, Chang'e 3 will mark the first attempt to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar surface since Luna 24 did so in 1976.

Emily Poore, Sky & Telescope's editorial intern, has a B.A. in physics and English literature, and is a publishing and writing graduate student at Emerson College.

About Emily Poore

Emily Poore is a freelance science writer and has a bachelor's degree in physics and English literature with a minor in astronomy. She is currently pursuing her master’s in publishing and writing at Emerson College. Find her on Twitter: @PooreWordChoice

4 thoughts on “China Launches Lunar Mission”

"Given that scientists know how, where, and when Chang’e 3 will arrive and land on the, LADEE may be able to see how the composition and amount of exhaust introduced into the lunar atmosphere it migrates around the Moon." — I think this sentence has an extra "it" in it. Thanks for this interesting report. Best wishes to the Chang’e 3 team for a successful mission. I’m very happy that an adventurous woman and her pet rabbit will be exploring the lunar surface.

The story of the "bunny girl" has been to the Moon before …July 20, 1969. About seven hours before the first manned moon landing, Mission Control told the crew of Apollo 11 the story of Chang’e (then transliterated as Chang’o) saying "watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree." And Michael Collins in the command module replied, "Okay. We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl." (sometimes attributed to Buzz Aldrin)

Thanks to Emily for a fine article on this mission! A point to note, however, is that although Sinus Iridium is indeed in the upper left portion of the Moon as viewed from mid-northern latitudes, it is in the lower right portion as seen from here in Australia. As Sky and Telescope magazine, and this website, are enjoyed by people all over the planet, it would be good to word all articles to cater for a worldwide readership. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the note Martin! We do try to keep our worldwide readership in mind (hence blogs on sky events that are better seen from countries outside the U.S., e.g. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/Moon-Occults-Spica-214932311.html), but for various reasons we generally set our default observing location around 40 degrees N. Of course, we try to remember to remind readers that we do that! We also have a sister magazine, Australian Sky & Telescope, that covers the Southern Hemisphere.